Paradise >> While four of the five seats on the Butte County Board of Supervisors are settled, the candidates for the remaining position faced off Monday in Paradise.

In the 1st and 4th districts, incumbents Bill Connelly and Steve Lambert respectively won re-election in June. The 2nd and 3rd districts aren’t up for a vote until 2018.

But in the 5th District neither incumbent Doug Teeter nor challenger Maurice Huffman received 50 percent of the vote plus one in June, and are on the ballot again Nov. 8.

They took part in a League of Women Voters forum Monday in Town Hall and discussed issues facing the county.

Marijuana

Marijuana growing is a big item in the county, and voters have passed several stringent regulations on growing the plant. Measure L on the county ballot seeks to loosen growing restrictions and the state’s Proposition 64 aims to legalize marijuana use.

Incumbent Teeter said the local measure was written on the back of the state proposition and is premature.

He was concerned about the commercial application of Measure L, specifically that it didn’t cover enforcement and taxation.

“The state of California hasn’t really worked out those issues,” he said, noting the entire Board of Supervisors opposes Measure L.

Huffman is divided on Measure L and said more work needs to be done to address personal grows. But he is leaning toward supporting Measure L because there are people who need marijuana medicinally and doesn’t believe patients should have to jump through hoops to get their medicine.

“I wish it were written a little bit different, and I hope that if I’m on the board that I can help make a little more sense of it,” he said.

The economy

Turning to the economy and jobs, Huffman said people want to leave the bigger cities where one-room apartments can be a couple of thousands dollars. Companies like Facebook and Google are sending their workers to places like Texas and other low-cost areas.

With Butte County’s low cost-of-living, Huffman said the county should actively court these businesses to help create local jobs.

Teeter said the supervisors supported a tourism business district that allows tax revenue collected from hotels, motels and campgrounds to be used for out-of-county advertising to entice tourists to the area.

Maintaining a business-friendly development services department and supporting existing businesses also goes a long way in keeping jobs in Butte County and boosting local revenue, he said.

Eminent domain

The candidates addressed eminent domain, stemming from a comment regarding the expansion of the Neal Road landfill and negotiations regarding the land surrounding it. It was mentioned in a recent supervisors meeting that the county had legal mechanisms to pick up the land, should negotiations prove fruitless.

Teeter said he believes in private property rights and the government should not just take property.

“That said, you probably wouldn’t have a lot of freeways if you didn’t do eminent domain because someone would trip it up,” he said.

Eminent domain can be abused, but in the case of the landfill all options haven’t been explored, he said. He added that the public also needs to weigh-in on whether a potential eminent domain project would serve a real public purpose or if it is simply taking someone else’s property to create a new business.

Huffman said there may be a place for eminent domain, but he does not support it generally. Not being privy to negotiations, he doesn’t know why eminent domain would be mentioned, especially if the property is up for sale.

He said he wished the landfill problem would’ve been solved a long time ago and that he doesn’t like to wait to address a potential problem.

“I’m not sure how it got pushed out so far,” he said.

Homelessness

The candidates also addressed the homeless issue. Teeter said it is difficult to deal with, especially without proper funding from the state and federal government. AB 847 was recently signed by Gov. Brown that takes money from the mental health program and makes it grant money that the county will have to compete for, he said.

Even so, a 14-bed facility is being built in Chico to address chronic homelessness, he said.

Huffman said he knows of partnerships that aim to get the homeless into a home.

“I’ve had a couple people approach me recently they have these container homes that they can put up instead of having (the homeless) on the river in camps,” he said.

He said there is a stigma that the homeless are “freeloaders,” but believes once they are in a home, the problem of why they were homeless in the first place can be addressed.

The candidates also touched on salaries for BCSO, the early release of prisoners and trains spilling toxic material in the Feather River.